To honour the contribution of the media and lend a helping hand to the kin of scribes who died of COVID-19, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath handed over cheques of Rs 10 lakh each to their families at an event organised at Lok Bhawan in Lucknow on Saturday.

Families of 55 journalists received the financial assistance of Rs 10 lakh each and the beneficiaries included the kin of senior print media journalist Subhash Mishra and TV presenter Rohit Sardana.

Expressing sincere condolences to the bereaved families, the chief minister said, “We have witnessed many editors, journalists and members of the media fraternity losing their lives while fulfilling their duty gripped by the fatal coronavirus infection. Your losses cannot be fully compensated but we can provide some support to your families. Our government is committed to providing all support to journalists and we will continue to encourage them.”

Praising the efforts of journalists, Yogi added, “The media did the work of sharing true and factual news in the time of the global health crisis on the basis of which the government got an opportunity to prepare a strategy and successfully implement it in a time-bound and planned manner. While we controlled the first coronavirus wave, we also started the vaccination programme for health workers, corona warriors along with media persons as it is a vigilant watchdog of democracy. After having a word with the president of National Broadcast Association and on his suggestion we started special vaccination booths for media persons in Lucknow and Noida, wherein over 25,000 journalists and their family members were vaccinated."

Regarding vaccine wastage in Uttar Pradesh, the chief minister said, “The prime minister had asked me about the vaccine wastage status in the state and also gave suggestions to bring it down to zero. In one vial, we started vaccinating 11 people to completely stop the wastage. Vaccines are available in sufficient quantities across the state and the speed with which the vaccination programme is going on, the government will be able to cover everyone soon in the state.”